Corrado Malanga and Filippo Biondi presented interpreted satellite-radar (SAR) tomography. They claimed spiral shafts and chambers extend more than 600 m below the pyramid. It was not peer-reviewed. Update (Aug 2026): Remote Sensing retracted the pair’s 2022 Great Pyramid paper using the same SAR Doppler-tomography approach (see the August 2026 entry).
Why it matters: It went viral in alternative media as a hidden “underground city”. It is an example of extraordinary claims based on novel processing.
Mainstream view: Radar experts and Zahi Hawass said SAR cannot image hundreds of metres into rock and called the claims baseless.
Alternative view: Supporters want independent tests.
Kathleen Springer, Jeffrey Pigati, Jessica Tierney and colleagues expanded the excavations at White Sands and found 20 stratigraphic layers with human footprints in place, alongside megafauna trackways and drag lines made by travois. New radiocarbon dates on conifer pollen, combined with dates on aquatic seeds, put the footprint sequence between 23,500 and 21,700 years ago. Pollen, biomarker and sediment data record the lake turning into a playa during a dry spell that matches Dansgaard-Oeschger event 2, about 23,200 years ago.
A Science news feature reports that Andean archaeologists are replacing the traditional Inca chronology (empire from 1438) with radiocarbon dates. At Saqsaywaman, dated charcoal suggests the site began to be remodelled with fitted masonry around 1400, with construction peaking from about 1418; the first results are in press at Antiquity.
Nature reported new geophysical survey results, published by Eldamaty, Abbas, Ballard and Reeves in the Amarna Royal Tombs Project’s occasional papers, that they say point to hidden chambers beyond the walls of Tutankhamun’s tomb, possibly the burial of Nefertiti.
Remote Sensing retracted Filippo Biondi and Corrado Malanga’s 2022 paper, which claimed SAR Doppler tomography revealed undiscovered internal structures in the Great Pyramid. The journal says an investigation after a reader’s concerns confirmed serious methodological flaws and statistical errors that undermine the conclusions.
